Requiem for a Nightmare
by Flashfire97
Summary: There's a rouge dragon in town, and with the help of a new arsenal of demigod weaponary Tarrick is going to have to take it down. With the help of a trigger happy best friend and a sarcastic girlfriend of course.
1. Chp 1: Transformations

Chapter 1: Transformations

I couldn't take it anymore. I was on the verge of exhaustion. My breaths were quick, short, and painful. I tripped over my own feet and collapsed to the ground. This was the end.

"Oh get up you sissy!!!" Shouted the satyr behind me. "We've been jogging for what? Two miles? I thought you were some athletic dude at your old school."

"Colin, I'm a son of Hades, I'm used to shadow-traveling long distances," I mumbled, my face buried in the dirt. "See?" I motioned around me, not looking up. "Twilight, the best time to shadow travel."

"Yeah well you're inexperienced and I don't want to lose my legs, my arms, my head, or any other useful extremity, so come on and get up!" Colin countered who then reassuringly patted me on the back and kept jogging. I closed my eyes and upon opening them I emerged from a tree in front of him. "See? It's easy." Colin looked away instantly.

"Is it just me or are you not wearing pants?" He asked. I looked back to were I used to be sitting and saw a black pair of denim jeans lying on the ground. I quickly darted over there, on foot might I add, and put them back on. I rushed back over to Colin, who was bleat-laughing so hard I thought he was going to flip the bucket right then and there.

"I though, I, I thought you were dead tired!" He managed to choke out.

"I am." I replied casually.

"If I could run that fast I would set a Camp Half blood track record!" he cackled.

"Yeah well, that was a pants crisis. Besides," I ran my hands over my clothes. "Now it's an outfit, see?"

"Whatever," Colin said, his face returning from deep purple to deep red.

"I really, need to lie down." I put my hand up against the pine tree next to me. "Oh what's that?" I asked, reaching out towards a shining yellow fabric that was hanging from one of the lower branches.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!!!" came Colin's scream from behind me. Too late. As soon as my middle finger barely grazed the edge of the fabric I was instantly pinned to the ground by a scaly red and black claw, with a large red snout the size of a car staring at me. There was a disgruntled growl and I was blasted with thick grey smoke from its baseball sized nostrils. I had managed to gag three times and puke once at the retched smell of the breath before I was wrenched from the claws by a furry hand.

"Next time, when I say don't touch something I mean don't touch something!" came Colin's disgruntled voice beside me. He turned around and looked at the animal, which turned out to be a massive red dragon. Go figure.

"Down boy!" he shouted. The dragon gave him a slight turn of the head as if to say "who are you and why are you trying to kill my family?" The last part may have been interpreted wrong. "Now!" Colin said in a stronger voice. The dragon decided that who ever was talking to him was either crazy, stupid, blind, or a composition of the three. But he decided to sit down anyway. "Thank you." Colin said, then turned and walked away.

"You forgot to curtsey," I reminded him.

"Oh shut up," he muttered, walking further down the hill.

* * * * * * *

By the time we had made it to the porch of a large barn Colin was dead tired. I started jumping around him, throwing weak punches at him, purposefully missing by a few inches.

"Come on and get up you lazy buffoon!" I joking yelled at him. "That was the down hill stretch! You're supposed to be pumped!!!!" I chuckled weakly and sat down.

"Hooves," he said, pointing to his, err, 'feet.' "Try running downhill for 100 yards in them and then tell me what you think."

"Posh-ah," I scoffed at him.

Colin walked into the barn to talk to someone. A tall slender kid with ratty blonde hair materialized in front of me.

"You would be Calco Mendel, am I right?"

"Yes I would sir," I said politely. Always be polite to people you don't know, you never know whose in charge.

"Come with me." He gestured towards a ring of cabins. The cabins were very odd. There were 13 of 14 of them; I didn't get a good look. They were all different colors with weird banners out front.

I followed the blonde kid until he stopped at the volleyball court underneath a large tree. There was a large rope dangling from the tree that ran into the sand, but I quickly dismissed it, thinking it was of no importance.

"Have I seen you anywhere else?" I asked him.

"You may have seen my brother, were practically twins." He quickly replied. "Now, TASTE NET NEW KID!!!!!" he shouted and a large nylon rope sprang from the sand and tied me up. I struggled but it was all in vain. He chuckled and a pool of campers started to collect around the border of the volleyball court.

"You just got Stolled!" he told me, laughing. Everyone around me was laughing, thinking of horrible things to do to me. It made me angry, real angry. Here I was, a stranger to them, getting mocked due to my own stupidity. Oh that made me angry, like REAL angry. I felt a surging sensation inside of me, like I had swallowed too many Pop Rocks. My body became tense and stiff. I had felt this before, in 4th grade for example. Trevor the bully had decided to throw me in a pit of mud when I had just gotten new shoes and it was picture day and everyone was laughing at me. Basically I got suspended for the following events, as well as 3 years of counseling. In short, god powers suck. I sliced through the net with my newly grown black claws. I pounced at the kid who had led me here. My now glowing golden eyes stared at him with a fury I didn't have, but my rabid mind thought I did. This crazy power that I had for some reason involved me turning into a cat like creature and going completely insane. I didn't enjoy going into that state, but being a son of Hades I had real anger issues. He laid there, eyes wide and full of fear.

"What, what are you?" he asked, his voice trembling so much you could hardly understand what he was saying.

"Me? I'm the guy who you DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH, BECAUSE IF YOU DO HE'S GOING OT KICK YOUR **ASS!!!!!!!**" I screamed at him in my newly-depend voice. I looked up and saw that the crowd had not dispersed. I stood on my hind legs and pointed to each one of them individually. "And this is a message to all of you! If you cross me again I will personally disembowel you! You here me!" Everyone screamed and ran towards their respective cabin. Mental Note: _All the hot girls are running into the pink cabin._ The rush of adrenalin was wearing off, I had to find a place to hide or I will crash out in the wide open and I will wake up with a serious hurt on me from all of those perturbed campers. I looked around. _There was a blood red cabin_, I thought. _Nice, but the boar head is kind of a turn off._ _Pink is so not my color, when did peacocks become a man thing, I doubt that there will be much to hide behind in that massive marble cabin, Oh! That black one looks nice and cozy!_ I ran towards the old, rickety, black two-story cabin. I luckily found it deserted. I dove for a bed, my normal body returning in mid flight. I landed on the bed and slowly all of my energy faded away. The last thing I saw before I completely passed out was the sight of a 30 year old man walking in to the room.

"Well hello there stranger!" he said with what I'm pretty sure was a fake southern accent. "Welcome to the Hades Cabin."

-------------------

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-Flashfire


	2. Chp 2: Propositions

Chapter 2: Propositions

I opened my eyes slowly, feeling exhausted and drained. I looked around cabin, not seeing anything that anyone would want to see after just having gotten knocked unconscious by an uncontrollable god power. It must have been a couple hours that I had been asleep, because the first cracks of dawn were peering over the crest of the hills. I decided that going back to bed would be futile, seeing as how I wasn't much of a sleeper. I pulled on my coat and quietly slipped out into the cold morning air. I could hardly see anything because my breath was creating so much fog. I heard a disgruntled howl off in the distance, in the direction of the forest.

I pulled out my weapon, cleverly disguised as a reading glasses case, and pulled the two halves apart. Both halves morphed into double edged celestial bronze blade. Son of Hades, standard issue. I pushed both hilts into each other and they magically fused together. The hilt lengthened and the blades shortened turning it into a spiked staff. I twirled it a couple times in my hands just to get a feel for it. I hadn't pulled out this thing in a long time. I searched around me, making sure no one was watching me. It had warmed up, creating a think fog. There was a small lantern about 20 yards in front of me, but the fog prevented me from seeing its carrier. _If I remember correctly, the ocean be in that direction?_ I thought. _Maybe it's just the fog throwing off my sense of direction. _I stopped in my tracks.

"Who goes there?" I called quietly, so as not to wake the other campers. Suddenly the mist cleared, as if blown away. I saw a man standing there, holding the lantern. He was about six feet tall, with charcoal hair and deep green eyes. His skin was tan and he was wearing a bright orange tee-shirt that was worn with age. His denim jeans were slightly torn on the knee, and dusted with mud. The strangest thing was that he was STANDING ON THE WATER!

"'Ello!" he replied. I reeled back in surprise, tripping on a lump in the dirt. I looked up at the sky, the stars fading at the mid morning light. Instantly there was another adult, with pale skin and unruly black hair hovering over me.

"Need a hand?" he asked.

"Where'd you come from?" I asked him.

"The shadows," he replied nonchalantly.

"Son of Hades?" I asked him.

"Name's Nico," he said with a smile. He stretched out a pale gaunt hand and helped me up. The man on the water had made it to the shore line and was clambering over the edge of the bank.

"I see you've met the new recruit," he commented to Nico.

"Not entirely, I don't believe I've managed to catch you name."

"Tarrick Mandel," I relied coolly.

"Well, Tarrick," said the stranger, "What's a guy like you doing out here at a time like this?" The bugle call isn't until… now!" He shouted. Instantly the entire camp was filled with the echoing sound of a bugle wake-up call. Poorly played might I add. Nico, the stranger, and I all covered our ears to protect them from the horrible screeching. When the song was finally over, the pavilion of cabins was filled with the sounds of mumbled curses in Ancient Greek, and some curses in English. I'm pretty sure there was a Russian or French swear somewhere in there too. The muttering ceased and everyone got ready for the day's activities.

"What," I gasped, "Was THAT??"

"Our official bugler is in the infirmary," said Nico. "Accident during capture the flag."

"What kind of sick and twisted camp games do you play?" I asked him, half shouting.

"Relax, its demigod training," he reassured me. He looked at the ground and noticed my staff. "Err, you might be wanting this," he told me. He picked it up and handed it carefully to me. I grabbed it and it morphed back into its disguised form, a garnet reading glasses case with the words "property of Tarrick Mandel, touch it and you DIE" written on the side. I smiled at him and slid it into my pocket.

"Well!" said the stranger. "It be time for breakfast! Don't want to be late for breakfast!"

"Why?" I asked him.

"Because we don't eat lunch until 2 and trust me, there aren't any leftovers." He smiled and walked away with Nico.

"What's you name?" I asked the stranger. He turned around and looked me in the eye.

"The name's Jackson, Percy Jackson."

***********

After I had a class in metalworking and archery, I took a class in AP Geometry. I wasn't too bright, but I figured as long as I understood half the stuff I could possibly walk away looking like a complete idiot.

I sat in the middle of the room. Not in the front, that's where the smart kids sit. Not in the back, where the slackers sit, because the teachers pay extra close attention to that area. I was probably the first one there since a Hephaestus leader let us out of metalworking early. There were only three students there already. Archie "Sniper" Rodriguez, who was also in my metalworking class and possibly a friend, Abigail Turrner, who was daughter of Hecate and completely hot, and some other girl I did not recognize. She had long brown hair that was covering her face since she was looking down, a purple tee shirt on, long jeans, and a small leather belt. I decided to sit down next to her.

"How goes it?" I asked her.

She didn't look up, instead she was writing in something that looked a lot like a diary. After a few minutes she looked up as the instructor walked into the room. I didn't get a good look at her face because the instructor started to talk to us, and I didn't want to miss a second of anything that might be on a test.

"Good morning class," the teacher said joyfully. "I will be your substitute for today, seeing as how someone decided to pour Greek fire on Mr. Johnson's bed." There was the slapping sound of a high five behind me and a faint, "yes!" Our substitute was middle aged man in a wheel chair. His beard wasn't the best kept, but his dark brown hair had been poorly combed to the point were it looked semi-presentable. His wrinkled skin had one of two scars in it, but almost nothing could be seen of his torso, seeing as how it was covered in a leather jacket. I looked over at the girl sitting next to me and caught a glimpse of her face. My heart fluttered a little bit when I saw it had pretty features. Stupid hormones and they always making me look like an idiot. Can't I go one day with a semi-gorgeous girl showing up in my life? Is Aphrodite that much of a bully?

"Today we will be learning about solving for the angle of an inversely proportional polygon. Please turn to page 285 in your textbooks."

_What, textbooks? Who said anything about textbooks?_ I thought. I lightly pounded my fist into my desk in frustration.

"Here," came a voice from beside me. I turned around and saw the girl next to me holding out her bright red textbook at me. "Take mine, I've already memorized it." I chuckled and took the textbook thankfully.

"Hi mi name is Tessa Menzies, daughter of Athena," she greeted me. She held out her hand.

"Hi, Howie, uh I mean, uh, Tarrick Mandel," I shook her hand. She held back a giggle and we turned back to the teacher.

************

There was a loud thunder clap, signaling the end of class. I handed the textbook back to Tessa, we exchanged friendly smiles, and headed out the door. Right as I was leaving the substitute called me back into class. Archie was passing me at that very same moment.

"Tough luck buddy," he said, reassuringly patting me on the back.

"You too Archie," called the substitute. Archie froze, not moving at all. This was unusual for a kid who was normally bouncing off the walls after a shot of decaf. Who ever this substitute was, he must have meant serious business. I hesitantly turned around and looked at the substitute.

"Sit," he commanded. Archie and I both sat down in the front row. The sub hastily wrote some Greek letters on the chalk board. He stepped away, making a gesture with his hands as if to say, "well?"

"Rouge dragon," Archie translated.

"Exactly," the sub replied. "And you have to find it."

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oooooh, cliffhanger! always wanted to do one of those!

Remeber: rate it even if you hate it!

Bad review is beter than no review!


	3. Chp 3: Explanations

Chapter 3: Explanations

"A dragon?" I exclaimed. "You mean like, the all-powerful-200-feet-long-fire-breathing-mythical-eats-young-maidens-preys-on-castles-loves-milk-causes-the-plague-flies kind of dragon?"

"Oh gods no!" he replied. "This one is only 100 feet long. "

"That's makes me feel better." I said sarcastically.

"Chiron," Archie interrupted. "You really expect him to fight a dragon?" Archie gestured towards me. "He's only been here a day!"

"You're Chiron?" I asked, bewildered.

"I would have agreed with you yesterday Archie, but then we got a prophecy," he held out a piece of paper to Archie.

"We got a prophecy?" I asked anyone paying attention, which was no one.

"I see, but isn't Nico also a son of Hades?" Archie asked.

"Nico, like the guy I saw this morning?" I asked.

"Yes, but look at this right here," Chiron pointed to a spot on the paper.

"Time out!" I screamed. Chiron and Archie both look at me with expressions of worry. "Will someone be so kind as to tell me what in the name of Hades is going on?"

Archie sighed. He handed me a piece of paper. I grabbed it expectantly and studied it, but all that was on it was a crude poem written in pencil.

_Out in the Penn's woods, filled with brotherly love,_

_Cries out a soul, cast from above_

_By the dawn of 171st day_

_All hope of victory will be taken away_

_Daughter of Hecate, Son of Ares,_

_Daughter of Athena, Sons of Hades,_

_Five will go to the path that burns_

_Though one will die and 3 shall return,_

_Ever fifth one has been forgotten naught,_

_Sadly her final battle is fought_

_Sentenced to Hades this poor soul_

_A loss it creates, no one could console_

"Whoa," I commented. "Deep. Did one of your scouts get this off a bumper sticker?"

"No Tarrick!" Archie almost yelled at me. "This is serious! Prophecies always come true! It says in there two of the group members are going to die!" There was a serious look on his face that I had never seen before, granted I've only known him for 24 hours. He buried his hands in his face and sighed.

"First things first," he said calmly. "We have to assemble a team." He removed his hands from his face and pointed to the fifth and sixth lines of the poem. "Thankfully this prophecy is pretty straight forward. It says right here, 'Son of Ares, sons of Hades, daughter of Athena, daughter of Hecate.' We only have one daughter of Hecate, the rest are guys. We only have two sons of Hades."

"Yes," interrupted Chiron,"but how many daughters of Athena are their?"

"23," Archie replied instantly. Chiron and I both shot him worried glances. "What?" he asked.

"Never mind," I replied. "Well, how many sons of Ares are there?"

"More than a few," Chiron said sadly. "But I choose Archie for a reason." Archie looked up expectantly. "Ever since Annabeth's dad defeated the monsters atop Mount Tam using celestial bronze cased bullets, I had some campers start working on a project off the books. Come with me," He motioned towards the door. We walked over to Felix, the metalworking leader, son of Hephaestus. Chiron muttered some words to him, and then Felix motioned for us to follow him. I took one more look at the prophecy. For just a second, I saw a hidden word jump at me, but I quickly lost it. _It's probably just my dyslexia_, I thought.

After walking behind a curtain we emerged into a poorly lit room the size of a half-bath, its walls covered with plywood. Felix reached up to what looked like one of those sprinklers on the ceiling, pulled it out, turned it, and pushed it back in. Instantly the ply wood fell off the walls, revealing rack after rack of shining celestial bronze rifles, machine guns, and-

"Is that a rocket launcher?" I asked, bewildered.

"Yep," Felix said proudly. "Only one of it's kind."

"Dang," said Archie. "Is that, a fifty cal' armor piercing incendiary sniper rifle with times twenty magnification scopes and gimbal mounted support stand?"

"Good eye," Felix said, amazed. "It also comes equipped with a detachable silencer and recoil suppressing stock." Archie laughed and grabbed the gun off of its stand. I was eyeing up and odd looking pistol.

"What's this?" I asked Felix.

"That," he said, taking the gun off of its perch, "would be a Browning Mark 3. The original design was made of steel with a black epoxy finish, but this one is celestial bronze through and through. It has high profile fixed sights with a locked breech and single action trigger. Don't worry about the thumb safety, it's ambidextrous. Its barrel is four and five eighths inches long and fires 9mm API round."

"Uh…" I mumbled. "What?"

"That's the technical term for kickass!" Archie told me. He chuckled and started walking towards the door, testing the sights on his new favorite toy.

"Hold it there Tex'" Chiron grabbed his shoulder. "These weapons are still on the hush-hush, so first let's assemble your team, and embark tonight." Archie dropped his gun sadly and trudged out the door. I gave Felix a thankful smile and handed him back my gun.

"Now to find Archie," I told him.

************

I eventually found him in the small clearing behind his cabin. He was loading his pellet gun with fresh ammo. I shyly walked up to him.

"This what you do when your bored?" I asked him.

"Pretty much," he replied without turning around. He picked up a small metal ring that had paper stretched over top of it and stood up. "Watch this," he told me. He tossed the ring up into the air and fired five times at it. It hit the ground with a sharp '_dink'_ and Archie picked it up. There was a solemn hole in the dead center of the paper.

"No offense but you is a really bad shot," I told him. He grinned at me.

"Nope," he giggled. "That's five through the very same hole.

"No way!" I exclaimed.

"Way," he said flatly. "Now let's go round up some recruits." He shoved the pistol into his pocket and walked towards the center of the camp.

"Okay," I told him. "We need five demigods for the trip, and we already have four. All we need is a daughter of Athena."

"Anyone you know?" Archie asked.

"Well, there is one girl. Her name is Tessa Menzies."

"Tessa Menzies? Dude first off, she is WAY out of your league, and two, she doesn't know heads or tails about anything related to guns."

"I still don't see the problem." I told him.

"Fine, well check her out."

"Okay, but I've got more pressing issues at the moment; I have to get ready for canoeing."

"Fine, meet back here in one hour got it?"

"Sure thing."

*************

I sat on a small log opposite Tessa and Archie.

"So you are telling me the Greek dragon Iactus Aere has escaped from the Underworld, and now it is terrorizing Philadelphia?" Tessa asked.

"No, we're telling you to read a prophecy," I told her. "A prophecy that doesn't say anything about the ring menace or a cactus. And what's this about Philadelphia?"

"Am I the only daughter of Athena around this place?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied sarcastically.

"Underachievers, it says very clearly right here." She pointed to the first line of the prophecy, '_Out in the Penn's woods, filled with brotherly love.' '_Pennsylvania means Penn's Woods.' 'Philadelphia' means city of brotherly love. Simple."

"Okay, now what's this about a cactus?"

"It's pronounced Iactus Aere, and it literally means 'cast from the air.' I thought it was just a myth, but I guess Chiron is never wrong."

"It's a myth?" I asked her. "Do you see where you are standing? Do you know who your parents are?"

"It's more complicated than that. You know how when you were younger your parents told you about the boogie man? It's the same sort of thing; an ancient Greek wives tale. The story talks about a dragon that fought Zeus, but when he lost one of his wings was hit by lightning and he fell to Earth. Every 1,000 years he escapes his prison and attacks some village, only to be captured and resentenced."

"And we have to fight it by," I checked the prophecy, "The 171 day of the year?"

"The summer solstice is the 171st day of the year, i.e. 2 days from now."

"What happens if we don't kill it by morning on Wednesday?"

"Then the creature will loose it's magical bond to it's prison in Hades, and we won't be able to force it back down there."

"Then we better kill it at the path that burns."

"What's the path that burns?" asked Archie.

"Well, I'm not sure about that. It seems almost too simple, but I think it means Burns street."

"Well, then it shouldn't be too hard."

"Hold your horses; there are 3 Burn Streets in Philadelphia."

"Bummer," said Archie.

"But," she said, her eyes gleaming with delight. "I, being the most awesomest daughter of Athena, have found out which Burn street."

"Now it's not nice to gloat," Archie told her mockingly. She scowled at Archie and went back to explaining. It was a pretty scowl.

"I found on an old Greek map that there is an entrance to the Underworld right where Philadelphia is today. After some more Recon I found that it emerges on none other than North Burn Street."

"Ten points for Tessa!" I held up my hand for a high five. She didn't even look up. I looked at Archie and he mouthed the words 'out of your league.'

"So it's settled than?" I asked Tessa and Archie. "Round up Abigail and Nico tonight and head out tomorrow morning?"

"Sounds good to me," said Archie.

"Then it's settled," said Tessa. She pulled her diary out of her pocket and started writing in it. She looked up at me, then looked back and started writing faster. I didn't know what to think, so I figured I get in some target practice on Archie's home gun range before the day was over.


	4. Chp 4: Revelations

Chapter 4: Revelations

I could hardly see the hand in front of my face; my kind of time. It was probably around two am, and it was pitch black, the only light coming from the waxing moon. We were walking down Half Blood Hill, towards the van waiting to take us to Philly. Tessa screamed and fell, but I managed to catch her.

"Thanks," she said nervously. "I can hardly see a thing."

She got up and kept walking. We loaded our guns into the trunk of the van; I had two Browning Mark IIIs and a steel tranquilizer gun, (for restless mortals) Archie had the 50 caliber sniper rifle, Tessa had the rocket launcher (I don't know what it is with girls and large shiny objects? I doubt she even knows what it does.) Abigail had an M16, and Nico had two SIG-Sauer P220s, a hunting pistol, a 30-30, one AK-47, and a mobile turret.

"I notice you are packing light," Archie told Nico sarcastically.

"You can never be over prepared," said Nico. We slammed the trunk door shut and climbed into the cabin. With a disgruntled groan the van came to life and we were off. I was sitting in the back, sandwiched in between Archie and Tessa. Tessa was writing in her diary by the light of a flashlight, and Rachel was already half asleep. Tessa noticed I was looking at her diary and instantly ripped it away from my gaze so I couldn't see. I don't know why, but I desperately wanted to know what she was writing in that diary. I decided that this was going to last sleep I got in a while, so I pulled my sweatshirt's hood over my face and dozed off.

*****************

The van hit a large bump and I awoke with a start. I looked around and noticed that Tessa was asleep to my right and Archie was snoring to my left. Tessa had leaned over so she was practically leaning on my shoulder.

The van pulled into a gas station and a demigod I didn't recognize got out of the driver's seat and started filling up the gas tank. Tessa's diary must have fallen out of her lap, because when I looked at the floor I noticed it was lying on the floor. I picked it up and went to put it in her lap, but then I realized that this was my opportunity to look inside. I fought with my conscious for a couple seconds, and then opened it up. Being a son of Hades I could easily read in the dark. I flipped to a recent entry, the day before I came:

**6/15/25**

**Today was just another boring day at camp. There's nothing really much to say. I heard that there is going to be new kid at camp soon. Colin left 3 days ago to pick him up. I wonder what's taking him so long. xoxoxo**

_Okay,_ I thought. _That doesn't tell me anything._ I opened up to the next entry.

**6/16/25**

**Oh my gosh! The new kid is so hot! And he's seems really nice. I can't believe he picked me to sit next to. I hope he noticed me. He doesn't seem to talk much. Maybe he's shy or something. I can't believe I have another class with him. Maybe camp will finally be bearable. Toodels!**

The first two lines practically made my heart skip a beat. I kept on reading, frantically scanning the page. On one hand, it was completely unexpected, but on the other hand it seemed almost cliché. Haven't I seen this in a movie before? I flipped to the next page.

**6/17/25**

**Can you believe that I am going on a quest with Tarrick! Of all people I, Tessa Menzies, am going on a quest with the Tarrick Mandel. It seems almost unreal! I can't wait!**

**6/18/25**

**Wow, I just got through the mission briefing with that Archie kid and Tarrick. Archie is a lot dumber in person. Tarrick, on the other hand, was brilliant. I would teach Greek names to that kid any day. I really hope anyone else isn't reading these diary entries.**

_Too late, _I thought. I can't believe that Tessa Menzies, _the_ Tessa Menzies has a crush on me. I turned to the diary entry she wrote today.

**6/19/25**

**I can't believe I got up at 2 am to go on a stupid mission. But as soon as I saw Tarrick with his bed-head it looked like something out of a day dream. I can't believe that we are fighting with guns. Guns are stupid. I don't hang around stupid things. Like Archie. Did I mention that kid is stupid? Oh well. I managed to get the only weapon that wasn't a gun. Time for bed!**

**PS I managed to sit next to Tarrick!**

I closed the book rapidly and put it back in Tessa's lap. I tried to fall asleep but my heart was racing to fast. I realized that I had just invaded Tessa's privacy and instantly a wave of shame fell across my body. I sat there, for the rest of the car ride, in dead silence.

**********

When the van finally pulled up to the old church on North Burns Street, I woke up Archie and we got out of the car. I let Tessa lie there, knowing that the later she found out about anything regarding her diary, the better. Abigail and Nico were sitting in the front seats so when we got out of the car they already had the trunk open. We started unloading our guns from the back of the trunk.

"Sir I'm going to have to tell you to put those guns down and put your hands behind your back," came the voice behind us. Apparently it was illegal to unload large golden guns out of the back of a van at 7 am in the morning. I turned around and saw a heavy black guy pointing a gun at my head that was swaying back and forth. He was dressed in a black shirt and black pants with an NYPD badge on his left pocket.

"Damn cops. Play it safe or fight back?" I asked Archie.

"There are no cameras on the street lamps, the dragon is probably going to destroy half of America's most treasured historical artifacts, you have a tranquilizer gun in your right pocket, and you are worried about fighting back against a husky police officer who looks like he's had one too many beers?" he calmly responding, loading ammo into a spare clip.

"Good point." I ducked and heard a shot fire, but it whizzed over my head. I upholstered my pistol and fired three shots into the man's chest. He tipped over from shock and started wriggling around on the ground.

"Why hasn't he fallen asleep yet?" I asked.

"Curse those action movies and their lies," Archie swore. "Tranq darts aren't instantaneous, you've got to give the sleeping agent time to get into the brain." As soon as he finished his sentence, the police officer slowly drifted off into a deep sleep. "New York finest my ass," Archie sarcastically commented. He clicked his last clip into his belt and locked a spare Glock onto his belt. "Wake up Tessa and let's go."

"Here goes nothing," I whispered to myself.

*************

We casually walked down the aisles of pews, guns drawn at waist-height.

"Where is this entrance to the Underworld anyway?" I asked Tessa.

"If this map is right, it should be right by the pulpit." We walked over to the pulpit, but found no gaping hole.

"Did it back out?" Abigail asked.

"_By the dawn of 171__st__ day, _that's what the prophecy said. If the sunlight of dawn tomorrow is what will break the dragon of its magical bonds, then the previous day's light of dawn will obviously set it free."

"What's with all this 24 hour stuff?" Archie asked. We waited for a couple hours before anything truly significant happened.

"Hey check it out!" screamed Abigail.

"What? Is it the dragon?" asked Tessa.

"No!" Abigail screamed gleefully. "Geoff sent me 13 texts!" There was a chorus of moans that resonated through out the church halls.

"I'm hungry," said Archie. "Anyone want a bite to eat?"

"Sure," said Abigail.

"No thanks," the rest of us responded. Rachel and Archie headed out the door and walked towards the nearest fast food restaurant. Suddenly a glimmer of light pierced through the stained glass window behind the alter. It illuminated a small section of wood next to the pulpit. This section of wood looked different then the others. It was made of a different kind of wood, and the patch was in the shape of a door.

"Hey guys!" I screamed

"Ahem?" came a questioning response from behind me.

"And girls. I think I found something," Everyone rushed over and kneeled down next to me.

"I think I found the entrance."

"Look at the light!" exclaimed Nico. "It's the outline of the Helm of Darkness!"

"Everyone," said Tessa. "I think we just found the entrance to Hades."

Suddenly the floor shook so hard Nico, Tessa, and I all fell back off the stage. There was another pounding at the floor. This time the sound of wood cracking echoed through out the church's massive halls

"Well," I said with a quivery voice. "It's been nice knowing you all."

Suddenly the floor gave way and all hell broke loose.

-------------

How's my story going?

Rate it, Review it, give me positive/negative feedback

Thanks to everyone who has read my story!

P.S. Tarrick wasn't seeing things, there is a hidden word in the prophecy, and it gives a hint as to what will happen at the end of the story. Once again, Thanks!!!


	5. Author's note

Author's note

I have been typing furiously for the past couple of days constantly updating my story, and I feel like I've started to loose my connection. The story to me seems to lack emotion and is just words on a page. I'm going to sit back for a little while, take a deep breath, play on my ipod, do some rough drafts, and then I'll start writing the fifth chapter. (that and I'm starting to write a sequel. Don't worry about hints being given away, I'll try to keep the flashbacking to a minimum until Requeim for a Nightmare is finished) Sorry to leave you like that in the middle of the action! I promise that when it comes back chapter 5 will be my best one yet.

-----------------

-Flashfire97


	6. Chp 6: Devestation

Chapter 6: Devastation

(The author's note was chapter 5)

I raised my gun and fired at the blurry mass three times, but the bullets did absolutely nothing other than spark off as dangerous ricochets. I heard the large stain glass window shatter above us and tiny shards of glass rained down on us. Then, everything was quiet except for the echoing noise of screaming outside.

"WHAT THE HADES WAS THAT?" screamed Nico.

"That," Tessa said, "Was the Iactus Rigmenos." She got up and dusted herself off.

"We have to fight that?" I asked, bewildered.

"What? Scared?" Tessa taunted.

"No!" I quickly retaliated. "Follow me; we have got to kill that thing."

Tessa and Nico shrugged and followed me out the front door. Outside of the peaceful church panic was everywhere. One or two buildings were on fire, car were overturned, people were fleeing for there lives, and worst of all, a Denny's lay in ruin.

"How dare it destroy an American institution!" shouted Nico over the roaring of the crowd. I heard the ear-piercing siren of a squad of near bye fire trucks, followed by the lower pitched police siren.

"Which way did the dragon go?" I asked Tessa. She looked down the street to the left: no carnage. She looked down the street to the right: houses were smashed in with a fire hydrant cracked in half.

"I don't know why but something tells me we should go left," she concluded.

"Brilliant," I said blankly.

She scowled at me and darted left. I started to follow her but I was abruptly grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. I was flipped over and felt someone grab me roughly on the wrist. I heard the sound of high pitched clicking and a cold metal bracelet wrapped around my wrists. _I'm being booked?_ I thought. I looked up and saw a police officer scowling at me. Nico was having the same problem; when I looked over at him I saw he was laying face first on the sidewalk.

"Excuse me sir?" I asked politely. "What am I being arrested for?" He gave me another scowl, picked up my Browning which I had dropped on the concrete, and knelt next to me, shoving it in my face.

"Do you have a license for this?" he asked sharply in a deep and gravely voice. _Oh…that…_

"Excuse me? Do you have a license for this?" I asked him. He didn't have time for a confused expression to settle onto his face before my elbow was up his nose. He doubled back in confusion and fell over. Nico took advantage of the early dawn darkness and shadow traveled upright.

"What the-" was the guards reaction, right before he was kicked upside his face Karate-Kid style. I reached into my back pocket and unsheathed my reading glasses case. The celestial bronze blade extended right through the chain connecting the two handcuffs, breaking me free. I pulled out my tranquillizer gun and rapidly leveled each guard. I cut Nico's handcuffs and we high fived each other triumphantly. Tessa materialized in front of us clapping her hands.

"That was some show," she said. One of the radios on a police officer's belt sprang to life.

"_Unit seven? Unit seven? Unit seven are you there?" _I dove for the walky-talkie and picked it up.

"Yes we are here, Unit seven is all accounted for sir," I quickly spoke into the microphone.

"_That's good to hear, wait! That's not Officer Burke! Who is this?"_ came the radio's staticy reply.

"Uh, this is um, Officer Mandel" I replied, thinking on my feet.

"_There is no Officer Mandel in the NYPD. Unit seven, I'm requesting back up."_ I angrily pounded the radio into my hand.

"Great," Nico sarcastically exclaimed. "Now we got the NYPD up our ass."

"So the police force guarding the same city that we are saving from an attack by a mythical dragon is also trying to kill us?" Tessa asked.

"Yeah that pretty much sums it up," Nico replied.

"This just got a whole lot more interesting," I said walking towards the direction of the carnage. I spotted a Burger King a block ahead. The roof had been caved in and the back end near the grills was on fire. The door had been busted in and the chairs were all tipped over. I could hardly see anything else, because a large portion of the roof and other derbies were piled in the center of the room. _Didn't Archie say he was going to get a bite to eat?_

"Guys," I warned. I hurt a disgruntled cough behind be. "And girls, I think Archie and Abigail are in here." Tessa walked up next to me and peered through a window.

"Oh gods," she gasped. "Tarrick, look over there! Archie's gun is lying next to one of the overturned chairs!"

"What?" I looked over and saw a shiny bronze barrel with a gas suppressor on the tip. I couldn't see the rest of the gun because it was wedged under a massive Whopper that said "Have it your way" on it.

"Archie!" I screamed, and darted towards the door. Tessa tried to hold me back but I broke from her grip and charged inside. I dodged a chair and weaved around a drink machine. I reached for the exposed part of the gun and pulled it, but the damaged barrel snapped in two. I threw it down and started digging through the rubble, but I didn't find anything useful. Then I heard a muffled shout from over by the bathrooms. I avoided a hanging crossbeam and knocked on the boy's bathroom.

"Archie?" I called.

"No!" came an irritated reply from the girls bathroom. "It's Abigail you twit!" I walked over to the girl's bathroom and pushed away a trashcan that had fallen over and shut the door. Abigail crawled out and hugged me.

"Awkward," I mumbled. She pulled away and started relaying what had happened really fast.

"Well I wanted to go to Burger King, I mean who doesn't, but apparently Archie wanted to go to the energy station saying that it was "healthier" so we decided to split up. Archie went to the Energy Station down the road and I stayed here at the Burger King."

"Whoa," I stopped her. "Archie's not here?"

"Oh no," she reassured me. I looked at the pipe I had pulled from the pile of rubble. It was bronze, not celestial bronze. Archie was alive!

"Now come on, we have to get out of here-" no sooner had she said it then the roof started to crumble. I evaded one piece and motioned for Abigail to follow. She had a slight injury on her right calf so her run was more of a limp. I helped her over another piece of broken concrete and aided her around a drink dispenser. Then a steel crossbeam that had been supporting the left half of the roof snapped under the weight. I ducked but Abigail's reflexes were to slow. I turned around just in time to see her get close lined in the gut by the swinging metal crossbeam. She flew back a couple feet and landed on the floor with a horrible "_snap!"_ I ran over to help her up but she dismissed me with a wave of her hand.

"I'm useless," she said sadly, coughing up blood. It was a sickening sight, Abigail lying there, practically dead. "You can't carry me out of here in time! Go!" I was about to reason with her but suddenly a large section of the roof caved in and fell on top of her; burying her and most likely killing her. I wiped a tear from my eye and darted out the door. I had just made it to the street when the final thread snapped and hundreds of tons of steel and concrete came raining down on top of the entire building. I was engulfed in a cloud of smoke, dust, and powdered cement. Tessa looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

"Any news on Archie?" she asked, her voice a whimper. I stared at the ground.

"Archie wasn't inside," I said mournfully. Tessa eyes perked up hopefully. "But Abigail was." Tessa's grief stricken mind took a while to register what I had just told her, but when it finally did she bent over and wept. Nico looked at me, his face an expression of heartbreak and shock.

"Come on," I whispered. "We have to find Archie." Tessa looked at me and nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. Nico and I progressed down the street, guns in hand. Each one of us swore in our minds that from this point forward Abigail would not die in vain.

How is it?

I'm disappointed how even though my story has been viewed often, it still hasn't gotten any reviews.

Please review and rate!!!

-**Flashfire97**


	7. Chp 7: Assassination

Chapter 7: Assassination

The dragon wasn't hard to find. How can you miss a 100 foot long beast scaling one of the largest skyscrapers in the city?

"Any input?"

"That thing is pissing me off. It can go die now," Nico said nonchalantly. He raised one of the three rifles we had allowed him to bring with him.

"I wouldn't do that," Tessa warned. Nico, completely not caring, fired six shots in rapid succession at the King Kong wanna'-be. The bullets sparked off harmlessly, turning the dragon's full attention on us.

"Did someone forget to tell you that the dragon is virtually covered in celestial bronze scales?" Tessa asked him.

"Come to think of it, yeah; someone did forget to tell me that. RUN!" He ducked and ran. The dragon, now slightly annoyed, jumped from its lofty perch and glided to the ground with its one good wing. It landed on a car and slowly lumbered towards us. Tessa and I ran to catch up to Nico, who was already a good two blocks away.

"Um, Tessa?" I asked, "How in the name of Hades to you kill this thing?"

There's a small spot on the back of its neck. It can only be killed if a strong enough wound is inflicted there." We caught up to Nico, who was frantically searching the back of our van.

"What you looking for?" I asked him. He cackled in triumph and pulled a large Frisbee looking device out of the back of the van. Tessa weaved past him and pulled out her rocket launcher. I unholstered my Browning and we charged back down the street towards center city.

The dragon was on our tail (no horrible pun intended) but we managed to avoid it by darting down tight alleyways it couldn't fit into. After a couple minutes of an unsuccessful goose chase the dragon gave up and headed down Chesnutt Street.

"It's headed towards Independence Hall!" Tessa screamed. We bolted out of the alley and headed after it. Once we got into the clearing, and realized just how hard of a job this was.

_Fighting a giant virtually indestructible dragon? Big deal. Fighting a giant virtually indestructible dragon in the middle of a massive panicking crowed, a little harder._

The dragon climbed up the wall and glared at us from its perch. I don't know what the mortals were seeing through the mist, but it couldn't have been good. I raised my gun to fire at the back of its head, but the throng of fleeing bystanders made it impossible to get a good aim.

"Here," said Tessa. "Let me help." She raised her rocket launcher to her shoulder and took aim. "Close only counts in horseshoes and high explosives." She mumbled.

"No!" I screamed. I batted the warhead away right as she fired, causing the missile to have a rather curved path. The celestial bronze tip allowed it to pierce right through the crowed of mortals until it hit the ground, the explosion flipping a taxi.

"What the Hades was that?" Tessa screamed at me.

"Hello? National Monument of insurmountable historic value? Rocket launcher? HELLO?"

She hung her head in disappointment and reloaded.

"We still haven't found Archie," Nico said. "We should put off fighting until we find him."

"ARCHIE PRESENT AND OR ACCOUNTED FOR SIR!" Came a distant scream from behind us. We turned around and saw Archie riding up to us in a blue 4-wheeler. It looked like a normal Mazda ATV, except there was something different about it-

Archie revved past us and started gunning down the dragon with the fifty-caliber turret mounted to the handle bars. All of the shots deflected off, leaving a rather perturbed dragon.

"Dude, that dragon is going to name a wrinkle after us soon!" Nico commented dryly. The cloud of mortals had thinned out by now, leaving Archie plenty of room to weave around, so as to dodge the columns of fire the dragon was spewing at him. Archie realized that he didn't stand a chance, and he swerved over to meet us. Suddenly a 20th anniversary hard top maroon Corvette glided past us on 5th Avenue.

"That dude stole my car!" Archie cackled right as he was gliding up to meet us.

"Really?" I asked.

"Nah, it's just something I say when I see a car I like."

"Focus on the problem at hand gentlemen!" Tessa told us. "The dragon?"

We looked up but realized the dragon had decided to move on, and was quietly lumbering over to the Liberty Bell Center.

"Awww, come on!" I moaned.

"Archie's rule numerous uno; never let your guard down. Numerous dos; if you do let your guard down shoot what ever distracted you. (I'm not shooting a Corvette) Numerous tres; kill all sons of bitches." He swiveled the turret and gunned down the looming golden figure.

"Its armor is impenetrable," I mumbled to him. He stopped shooting and glanced at me.

"Then why am I firing at it?"

"I was about to ask you the same question," I said dryly.

"Umm, I don't mean to be Johnny raincloud but we have a DRAGON TO FIGHT!" Nico shouted at us. I looked over and saw the dragon tearing apart the roof to the Liberty Bell Center.

"We have to get over there," Archie instructed us. "Tarrick, hop on." He patted the seat behind him. I climbed on and looked at Nico.

"You got everything covered?" I asked him. He saluted me, grabbed Tessa around the waist, and vanished into the shadows. Archie started the motor and handed me a helmet. The last thing I heard before the sound of the engine grew deafening was, "Let's kick some ass."

He roared across the open courtyard so fast I could feel every bump. He skidded up to a halt next to a silver Viper in the parking lot. We both dismounted and pulled off our helmets.

"That dude also stole my car," Archie mumbled. I gave him an I-can't-believe-I'm-out-in-public-with-you glare and grabbed my pistol. Tessa and Nico were already there waiting for us.

"Status?" I asked Nico.

"Everyone has been cleared from the building except one small 10 year-old, the Liberty Bell is still intact, the only major damage has been done to the roof, and I'm hungry."

"Then we've got ourselves a 10-year old mortal to rescue." I holstered my gun and charged through the front door. I searched around aimlessly, checking every nook and cranny of the entire building, but didn't find him. The dragon, on the other hand, was gleefully rummaging through the wreckage.

Then he found something that made me recoil with horror. I looked up and saw the dragon toying with his new favorite plaything; the Liberty Bell. Normally I wouldn't care. I would shoot at him and he would drop it, but when I looked up inside the bottom of the bell I saw the small mortal kid hiding inside the bell. If the dragon dropped the bell the boy would surely die. I quickly got up and ran around inside the room screaming at the dragon, trying to create a diversion so he would put down the bell and look at me.

"You miserable lump of gold!" I yelled at him, apparently not good at coming up with insults on the spot. "Yeah! What do you think of me now?" The dragon, disregarding me as an insignificant speck, went back to examining the bell. I sighed and raised my gun, firing a shot at its head. The dragon gave me a particularly annoyed grunt and did something that to this day still appears in my nightmares.

The dragon raised the bell in its hand, crumpled it up into a ball, and threw it at me. I quickly dodged it, but then took a double take. Not only was this a priceless historic artifact, "_the boy was still inside!"_ I whirled around in horror and saw a small stream of crimson blood illuminated by the early afternoon sun. I fell to my knees and let out a small scream of horror. I had seen many a friend die in combat, but this was a poor, young, defenseless mortal. He should never have been here. He should never have died. Images flashed through my mind; a mother crying, a gloomy funeral with no casket, a queasy historian picking apart the bronze encasement, a brother's pale face. A small cool tear wriggled down my cheek. The dragon on the other hand, had no sympathy. It took one look at the dead body and moved on. It got up and walked across the courtyard, disappearing behind another building. Nico Tessa and Archie came running up.

"Are you okay?" asked Archie.

"What happened?" asked Nico. I shrugged them off and hopped on Archie's ATV.

"Are you coming or what?" I asked them. Archie rolled his eyes and hopped on.

"Where to?" asked Nico.

"Follow the dragon," I told him. He disappeared into the shadows and I started the engines.

"You stole my car," Archie said with a sigh. I spun the tires and chased the Iactus Aere into the next county.

I hope you are enjoying my story!!!

Special shout out to Aniewun B. Utme:

THERE I UPDATED!!!!!

~Flashfire97


	8. Chp 8: Deforestation

Chapter 8: Deforestation

The last sliver of twilight was disappearing behind the massive sky scrapers of down town Philadelphia. I was starting to run low on gas so I jumped a curb and rolled into a nearby gas station. Archie got off, hobbled a bit, and fell over.

"Awww come on, I'm not that bad of a driver. Am I?" Archie looked up at me. His face was green and would have been set in a scowl except for the fact that his hair was a mess and his eyes were wide.

"I shouldn't have to-" He bent over, gagged, and vomited on the concrete floor. I winced and turned back to the gas pump. I pulled a golden drachma out of my pocket and rubbed the edge. The gold softened and melted in my hand. The small puddle morphed into a green rectangle and solidified, creating a clean, crisp, standard American fifty dollar bill. (A little gift to Camp Half-Blood courtesy of Hephaestus) I fed it into the machine and slid the pump into the gas tank. I locked the pump and helped Archie up, who was currently lying on the floor coughing up the last of it.

"That's disgusting," I admitted.

"So was the time you hit that lady who was crossing the street and didn't stop to help."

"I had the right of way, the light was green!" Archie gave me a blank stare and took my hand. I helped him up, batting him on the back. The pump clicked signaling that the tank was full. I hopped on and through the constant agony of the engine it finally started. I motioned for Archie to get on but he crossed his arms and looked away.

"Come on," I coaxed him. He continued to look at the sky and started whistling, the universal sign of "I'm waiting". I rolled my eyes and got off. Archie politely nodded at me and got on.

"Let me show you how a real driver works," he smirked. I grabbed around his waist tightly, but not tight enough. I rubbed my aching butt, watching him ride into the night. Stupid 1st law of motion, curse you Newton. Archie obviously didn't realize that I had fallen off, either caught up in the moment or asleep, so I slowly trudged down the poorly lit back road, following the tire marks.

**********

I eventually came to a stop outside of a large cabin nestled deep in the woods. I found the ATV parked next to a large oak tree. The engine was cold, so he must have arrived more than an hour ago. I walked over to the cabin to further inspect it. It was made mostly of wood, but its modern look suggested that it wasn't built old school fashion, and it was reinforced with metal. The door was your standard wooden frame with a golden doorknob. It was painted green with three brown slashes running diagonally down from the top right corner. The windows were fine, except one was painted red, which I found strange. I looked beside me and realized there was a broken mail box lying next to me. The broken piece was still a light brown, so the break must have been recent.

_Archie probably hit it while trying to park._ I walked up to the door to try and get in, so I could ask where Archie was. I was playing with the lock when I realized the slashes on the door where actually crudely carved out of the door, as if by-

_TALONS! _I thought. I looked around me, and the scene suddenly became much more horrible then I had previously thought. The break in the wood of the mail box was too low to the ground for it to have been broken by Archie's bumper, plus the front and rear of the ATV's body where unmarked. Shingles from the roof where scattered on the ground. The paint on the window, I didn't even want to think about that. Worse of all, there was a large crack running down the center of the wall, suggesting it had taken a severe blow. I turned around and kicked the door, but it only barley cracked. I pulled out my gun, shot the lock three times, and rammed my shoulder into the door. I knew what would be on the other side would scare me, but I had no idea.

The first thing I noticed as soon as I burst through the door was that the wall and roof on the other side of the room were missing. But then I realized I was wrong. They weren't missing; they were lying 250 feet due north of where I was standing, reduced to nothing but I pile of jagged wood.

I looked down and studied the floor. I saw three bodies lying on the floor. One was a man, lying on the right, wearing a black leather jacket and black pants. His hair was also black and stained with blood. His jacket had a large gash down the back exposing a nasty gash that was bleeding profusely.

A girl was lying next to him. She was probably my age, with brown hair and pale skin. Her glasses were lying next to her but were not broken. Her status did not look to bad, and I guessed most of the blood on her was from the man lying next to her. I couldn't make out her face since it was covered with dust and blood, but it was very pretty.

I turned to the last person and quickly recognized it as Archie. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that he was very badly wounded. But I figured that since I had some ambrosia and nectar in my pants pocket, I decided that the two mortals would be the top priority. I first ran to the man on the right. Worrying that he may have spinal damage, I figured it best not to move him. I reached into his jacket pocket to see if I could find an ID. I searched the pockets, put nothing was in them. The only thing I could see was a small golden handle poking out from beneath his belt. I pulled it out, and I found a small Celestial pistol. Suddenly I realized what had happened. This was Nico. I spun around and saw the girl lying next to him.

_Tessa!_ I thought. This was much worse than I had previously imagined. The dragon must have attacked them. I quickly pulled out all of my ambrosia and nectar, going around to each one of them, trying to help them.

Archie was the first to regain consciousness. He rolled over onto his back and looked up at me.

"Tarrick?" he asked drowsily.

I leaned over next to him. "I'm here."

He looked around confused. "I thought the entrance to Hades would look more like a cave and less like a shack. I couldn't help but smile.

"You're not dead." His eyes perked up.

"Really? Oh boy! Now I get to abuse you more!" I glared at him and he cracked a sly smile. "Smile, it confuses people."

"Come help me with Tessa and Nico," I commanded him.

*************

Before long we had Tessa walking around on her own two legs. However, Nico was a bit more difficult. According to Tessa, he had a fractured rib, a broken Tibia, a sprained coccyx, severe hemorrhaging in his heart, and a concussion. All in all, he wasn't going anytime soon. The only thing that kept him from dying was Tessa. Apparently, before we left Abigail had given her a small pouch of Pomegranate juice mixed with powdered granite. (Irony?) This mixture is very good at retaining spells. The specific pouch Abigail had given her, incase she wasn't there, was charmed with a powerful healing spell.

Tessa mournfully sprinkled the powder on Nico, remembering her dead friend. I tried to comfort her, but when I put my hand on her shoulder she shrugged it off. The powder glowed blue and sank into his skin.

"How long is this going to take?" I asked her.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "Abigail said it would take somewhere in between 15 to 30 minutes to work."

I check my watch; 5:10 am. "Sunrise is in 20 minutes. He might not be able to fight."

"That is assuming we manage to find the dragon in time," Archie pointed out.

"Uh, guys?" Tessa cautioned. "I don't think that will be a problem."

We turned around and saw the familiar sight of a massive glowing figuring towering over us.

"Well hi there," I cooed. The dragon gave me a disgruntled snort and walked away. I looked at Tessa. "What's his problem?"

"Oh nothing, he probably feels that you aren't a threat,"

"Where was that weak spot again?"

She pointed at the dragon's head. "The apex of the neck."

"I guess that means base of the skull." I pulled my Mark iii from my holster and lined up the sight. "I think this dragon needs to go back to school; it obviously has no idea what the definition of a 'threat' is." I tensed up on the trigger and fired a shot.

The dragon recoiled and clawed at its neck. After shaking its hand I saw tiny droplets of golden blood drip off its hands.

"What about this thing is not made out of Au?" Tessa asked.

As if on cue, the dragon roared into the night sky, red and white flames erupting from its mouth.

"Uh, that!" I screamed. "The puncture wound must obviously not have been big enough to have done serious damage. It would be like one of us getting a shot; not much blood, decent amount of pain.

The dragon whipped its head around and scowled at us.

"Dude, you really pissed that thing off," Archie commented.

"Since when can dragons scowl?" I asked.

"Uh guys?" Tessa asked. Archie and I looked at her. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide. "RUN!!!" she screamed. The three of us bolted out the door, running towards Archie's ATV. I ran over to the tree, but then realized there was something different about it. Was it that some leaves had fallen? No. The bark had been scratched. That wasn't the biggest change. Maybe it was the lack of a large blue four-wheeler parked underneath it.

"Where is it?" Tessa screamed. Then a fat teenager roared past us riding a familiar looking ATV.

"That dude stole my car!" Archie yelled.

"Technically it's not a car," Tessa commented. The kid turned to us, let go of one of the handlebars, and flipped us off with his newly freed hand. Archie rubbed his temples and turned around. I looked back up at the cabin, and suddenly it exploded. The dragon charged out of it and looked around madly looking for us.

"Shit," Archie cursed.

"That's the least of our worries," I said.

"Really?" asked Tessa.

I shrugged my shoulders. "No, not really; I just figured it would be cool to say that." I raised my pistol and fired.

* * *

I promise you the fight with the dragon will end next chapter. However, the story won't nearly be done.

~Flashfire97


	9. Chp 9: Tarnation

Chapter 9: Tarnation

I knew that doing this was pointless, as like usual the bullets did little to even pester the dragon. It turned its head toward us and growled. A faint wisp of flame danced around its nostrils as it began to intake what might be the last of its breaths we see. I bumped Tessa back and charged at the dragon. It picked me out as a target, luckily, probably because I was the one screaming and running at it with a semi-auto pistol. It arched its head and gave an ear drum bursting roar as it spewed fire at me. Just as planned. I waited for the incandescent glow of the fire to appear and jumped into the shadows. The thing about shadow traveling is, you need actual shadows. Darkness just doesn't cut it. Whether the dragon was fooled or not, all it needed to care about was that it had blown fire, and its target was not there anymore. Mission accomplished.

"Tarrick!" Archie and Tessa screamed in unison. Obviously my performance was moderately convincing. Tessa fell to her knees and started sobbing. Archie was a little more astute. He searched the forests and found my hiding spot.

"Eff you," he mouthed to me. I looked at him with confusion, raising my arms in the universal "what?" gesture. Archie shook off his frustration and raised his sniper rifle at the dragon. As the dragon in took a breath, Archie fired three shots toward it. The bullets were met with a blast of fire, which Archie side stepped and returned with bullet fire. These bullets faired a wee bit better than all the other one previously fired. The 9000 degree dragon breath was hot enough to melt the bullets in midflight, which promptly splattered against the dragon's armor and seeped through its scales. Armor or no armor, molten bronze is going to ruin your day. The dragon bellowed in pain, rolling on the ground. _Archie landed the first true shot of the day, all while I sat in the woods and played dead. I feel active._

I was about to join back in when I saw Nico's dying-yet-healing body lying in the charred heap that could be considered the remnants of the log cabin. Generally speaking, he would be out of harm's way, save the fact that Archie's recent blow had resulted in the dragon to run around aimlessly, trying to walk off the 3rd degree burns under its armor. As I winced Nico came inches away for the fifth time from becoming a half god half man pancake. Cringing at the thought that I had to risk shadow travel again, since running might not get me there in time, I ran into the light that a street lamp was providing and warped to as close to Nico as possible, which was about five feet shy of his position. Awesome, except I had to then drag his body back another five feet and I left behind my shoelaces, right pant leg, the zipper to my jacket and three or four fist-full's of hair.

"Godsdamn it," I cursed, noting my new attire_. That was the fifth pair of good shoelaces I'd lost to shadow traveling_. "Well, at least I still have half of my pants." _New plan: not shadow jumping Nico out of trouble. I might end up bald in my birthday suit, and Nico might not fare any better. Gods, shadow traveling is so embarrassing._ I long jumped to Nico's side, cradled his back and head, and tried dragging him out of harm's way. I almost made it out of the crumbling cabin until the dragon stopped fusing and started destroying all humans. Great for anyone beneath it, but not good for anyone next to it. My recent transportation had left me next to it.

Thanks to a minor burst of cover fire from Archie, I was allowed enough time to run past my shadow travel spot into the forest, content with where I had moved Nico.

Then a full moon came out from behind a cloud.

"THANK THE GODS!" I praised. Leaping behind a tree, I shadow traveled to where Archie was standing, gun in hand. I don't even think I left anything. The thing with shadow traveling is, the bigger or the larger the contrast between light and dark is, the cleaner the travel. Hence why a dying 40 watt bulb nearly killed me and a full moon left me with little contrast.

"Glad you could join us Mr. Halfpants," Archie mumbled, his mouth pressed against the stock of his sniper rifle. He fired off a round and cursed. "Out of ammo. You?" he motioned toward my gun.

I smiled. "I got a full clip with change." I raised my pistol toward the dragon's golden gleaming eyes and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

"Dude!" Archie commanded. "Fire!"

"The gun won't go off!"

"Give me that," he said, grabbing the pistol from my hands and opened up the top half of the gun. He rifled through its inner workings and looked up at me. "Where's your firing pin?"

_Apparently I did leave something behind._ I went to shadow travel, but then found myself staring down the dragon that was just plain sick of fighting me. I weaved to the side, trying to avoid its massive head, but got smacked in the side as it spun around to chase me. I sailed across the parking lot we were fighting in and almost hit a tree, but managed to pull off a shadow travel in time to land softly on grass. Velocity doesn't transfer through shadows. I was about to get up and shadow travel to where I would find my firing pin (hopefully) as my gracious full moon faded behind a cloud. I cursed and had to get there on foot. _Oh the perils of having to be standard_. I made it to my previous jump location with out fail. Frantically searching for the firing pin, I didn't notice the massive dragon bearing down upon me. It picked me up right as I found the firing pin, the delicate metal sliver falling from my grasp as I was hoisted fifty feet into the air, landing with a twang on the scorched pavement. I mumbled words that would mentally scar children as I turned to face what might very well be the death of me. The dragon wasted no time in throwing me up into the air and opening its jaws. I searched around for a shadow, but when you're seventy feet in the air, shadows are very rare. I lost my upward momentum and plunged to the open jaws of the dragon. Archie, without a gun, just watched in horror as I plummeted to my doom. Then Tessa, who I have failed to comment on recently, saved my ass… literally. The four wheeler, which may or may not have been scrapped a little while ago, came roaring over the hill at full speed, Tessa bailing from the driver's seat right as it caught air. Weighing in at around four hundred pounds, the ATV did a number as it collided with the dragon's stomach. It roared in a pained furry and blew fire at Tessa, who quickly realized she had no where to go. I braced for what might be my most embarrassing stunt yet, and shadow traveled on the glow of the fire. I sprang into existence next to Tessa, wrapped my hand in her shirt, and pulled her through a shadow jump. _I swear either of us comes out of this in our underwear I will willingly jump into the dragon's mouth._ Fortunately for Tessa's dignity, all she lost was a bracelet. Unfortunately for my dignity, I left behind my shoes and half my shirt.

"Damn it!" I cursed in frustration. The dragon, feeling particularly confused, decided that if it didn't eat one of us in the next five minutes, the whole east coast was gonna die. It inhaled so strongly that I nearly fell backwards. I grabbed Tessa and threw her backwards towards a group of trees. I got up to run, but had no where to turn.

_Ever fifth one has been forgotten naught,_

_Sadly his final battle is fought_

_Looks like its going to be me._ The dragon barred its teeth and blasted fire at me.

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Yes, I know that sucked (Cut me some slack, I wrote it in under a day)

Yes, I know I promised the dragon would die (Cut me some slack, I'm a horrible author)

Yes, I know that I screwed up the prophesy. (I'm getting to that)

Yes, I know it took me almost a year to update (I got distracted. You know how demigods with there ADHD are)

GODS, YOU PEOPLE ARE SO NEEDY

**R&R!**


	10. Chp 10: Termination

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Woo hoo! You people have stayed through the agonizing process of reading my fanfiction for 9 whole chapters! How am I going to reward you? By finally finishing the battle! (I swear this time)

Chapter 10: Termination

I felt the hair on my eyebrows singe and the hair I had left sizzle as I was engulfed in flame. Now I know what you're saying.

You: Tarrick! Shadow Travel! You're so good at it!

Me: There was nothing around me to produce a shadow you troll! That, and I am going to quit while I'm ahead. (By ahead, I mean that I still have some hair and am partially clothed)

Then, as if saved by a god, the dragon stopped. _Did he take pitty on me? Did he spare me? Does the tin man have a heart?_ Upon further examination, the tin man did not have a heart. He does, however, have a large scorch mark on his face. Archie had taken it upon himself to borrow Tessa's rocket launcher, which had oh so conveniently been near him. He had already loaded a second shot in by the time the dragon found him.

"Eh! Goldfinger! Paint this!" He launched a rocket from the tube and pegged the dragon with a second shot right in the snout. It bellowed in pain, but did not fall.

"Archie!" I called. As he turned to me I swept the firing pin to my Browning off the ground and tossed it to him. He unholstered the Browning from his side and had it open by the time he caught the pin. Charging towards the dragon, I prayed to each of the Olympians separately that this would work. Archie locked the slide back into place as the dragon barreled down upon him. He barely had time to throw it back to me before he was knocked across the pavement into a tree. He yelled in pain and crumbled to the floor. Refusing to look at him, worried of the distracting sadness that I would receive, I grabbed onto the dragon's leg. Like I said, this isn't going to work. Sticking the Browning in my waistline, I scaled the side of the dragon. Within thirty seconds of complete confusion for the dragon, I was on his back, bolting for the base of the neck. As I approached, I pulled the gun from my belt. It didn't budge. I looked down and saw the hole that ejection port was caught on the edge of my belt. I pulled out my waistline to allow it to slip through and brought it up to my side. I did all of this without looking where I was going. By the time I had brought the pistol to my shoulder I lost my footing. I tried to let off a lucky shot, but it glanced off the armor somewhere on the top of the head. I slid further as the dragon reared it head back and toppled off its back, about to crash into the pavement a good three or four stories below. As I looked to the sky, hoping that Artemis was going to grant me moonlight, I realized how dire the situation had become. The moon was already about to dip below the horizon as the sun was coming up.

_By the dawn of the 171__st__ day. _We were too late. As soon as the sun was high enough for the dragon to start his daily sun tanning, we would have to do more than just shoot it a few times in the base of the skull to bring it to Hades. The dragon in took a breath, and I had one last idea that may or may not kill me. Either way, it couldn't hurt. As the breath of fire was unleashed upon me, I shadow traveled to the ground. As I used shadow traveling more, I found that I lost less and less of my belongings to it. The fire passed over me, but the dragon got smart enough to realize that fire just didn't cut it. It lifted up its massive legs and tried to stomp on me. I evaded his legs, but was nearly crushed by its tail. The impact next to me caused me to flip head first onto my back. I rolled to avoid another tail, and ran over to Nico, the dragon following close behind. Rifling through Nico's jacket, I found the Frisbee like disc he had pulled from the van. Like I thought it would be, it was lined with plastic explosives with a cylindrical blasting cap in its center. Stuffing it into my own jacket, I ran towards the large mountain ahead of me. The dragon, slowed by its turn around and the occasion rock slipping underneath it, wasn't catching up to me. Because I wasn't eaten alive, this allowed me to start scaling the rock face. By the time the dragon was at the base of the mountain, I was about thirty or forty feet up, even with its head. It tried to snatch at me with its mouth, but I dodge it once and climbed over it the second time. The third time it hit me from underneath, catapulting me another twenty of thirty feet up the mountain side. _Thank you!_ It was about another 1000 feet or so to the top, and the dragon wouldn't stay still for a while. I jumped from rock to rock as I could, but suddenly I found a crack of light that let me shadow travel half way to the peak. This might be seen as an advantage, but what I gained in speed, the dragon made up for by being, well, a 100 foot long dragon. A rush of its one good wing and a few claw marks and it was practically up there with me. As it got to where I found the sunlight to travel, suddenly I saw the magic bonds start to dissolve. It wasn't instant, as it was only a sliver of light, but it was enough to make me worry if I wouldn't kill it in time. As the faint blue glow around the dragon swirled in complex patterns, signaling the break up of the bonds, I was within 100 feet of the top. A roar of fire bubbled up from underneath me, and I covered my face. The dragon's breath was accompanied by a leading breath of air, which sailed me to the base of the peak. I hardly ducked behind a rock before the fire singed the back of my jacket and nearly caught my pants on fire. Seeing that I was almost definitely dead, and it saw no reason to eat me, it stopped chasing me up the mountain and turned to jump off. Hoping that the crucial part of my plan wasn't a bust, I walked over to the edge of the rock that I was standing on. It was almost a 90 degree fall for about fifty or so feet. The dragon braced itself to jump, and I pulled out the Frisbee of explosives. I wedged a bullet into the blasting cap that I had pulled from my Browning on my run to the mountain. Holding it in my hand, I jumped off the rock wall, and plummeted toward the dragon. As it took off, I hurled the disc of explosives. The Frisbee hit towards the back of the skull. Then, my ingenuity kicked in. The hard impact set off the impact sensitive explosive on the bullet. This in turn lit the gunpowder, which exploded in a muffled _bang!_ The casing, which is heavier than the bullet got the majority off the energy.

I had not expected this.

The bullet's tiny momentum didn't spark the detonator, but instead broke its casing and powdered blasting agent started to pour from it. The casing harmlessly flew into the air, expending all its momentum. I watched in horror as the lump of high explosives sat there, doing nothing. As all of this had happened so fast, the Frisbee had just fallen off the dragon's back and I was still a good twenty feet from my doom by the time I realized I had failed.

Then, be it by the will of the gods or the luck of humanity, the detonator blew.

The high explosives followed suit, and a massive shock wave erupted from underneath the dragon's good wing. The wing fell limp, and the dragon became a golden missile, waiting to hit the ground. Id didn't know if this would kill it or not, but I didn't get to find out, because that's when I hit the ground.

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Author's note: The battle is finished… kind of!

R&R!


	11. Chp 11: Desperation

**Author's note:**

I didn't know what to do for this chapter (or the rest of this fanfiction for that matter) so I decided to stall. (When all else fails, procrastinate… or lie) So as I write this chapter at 10:00 pm (10:11 pm for all you people who need to be specific) I found myself wondering, Tarrick's going to die, won't he? He's on a rock, nearly dead, out of view from the ground, a thousand feet up, and the only one alive is Tessa, who has no idea wtf is going on (mainly cause she was hiding in the forest). So I thought "_I want pizza_" which was followed by the thought "_All Tarrick would be doing up there is sitting, in massive pain, jumping in and out of conscience, with absolutely no ability to do anything. All he would do is think._"

And from that, came the basis of this chapter…

**Chapter 11: Evaluation**

_I am in pain,_ I thought. It seemed like a logical enough thought at the time. Had I had any real cognitive thought, I probably would have gone into much more detail on the subject. And by detail, I mean profanity. I mean seriously, if the author hadn't rated this "T", I would let everyone know just how much it hurts to have all your ribs broken, your face sliced open on a pile of jagged rocks, both of your femurs, fibulas, and tibias shattered (the bones in your legs for all of you non-anatomical people), and your lungs possibly collapsed. I inhaled.

Definitely collapsed.

_I need to get off this mountain._ _I'm gonna die._ I'm gonna leave that one free of comment, since spoiling the ending just doesn't make for a good book.

As I tried a scream, a yell, a word, or even a sound, I would have recoiled at the intense pain it caused, had it not been for the fact that I couldn't move. Do you get the idea that I'm in pain? _How could I have thought this would be a good idea? Jumping off a cliff is never a good thing. _The wind of the early morning rustled the trees below. Above the sound of the trees I could barely hear Tessa calling out for me. _She'll never find me. I'm behind a rock; 1000 feet above her, in an area she would never even think to look._ I couldn't believe it would come to this. I was going to die, I could already feel it. What does dying feel like? It feels like blood running down your body, like someone is sucking the very life out of you through the barbed red hot needle of a syringe, like everything you know and love is about to be taken from you and you can do nothing but be held back and watch your life burn. I once read a book where a man asks death, "Death, does your life really flash before your eyes as you die?" Death's response was, "Yes, the process is called 'life'." (Exact quote not included) I came away with the idea that everything we see and feel is like watching our life slip away in front of us. Now that I'm dying, it seems much different. My life isn't flashing before my eyes, but my future. Not the whole "a-row-row-row-your-boat-gently-down-the-styx-say-hi-to-hades-for-me" kind of future, but the one I might have. I saw Tessa mostly, how we could have gotten together, maybe even grown up and gotten married. Now I know that sounds cheesy, but demigod relationships work differently than mortal ones. We don't date fifteen people in a week like some kids do. We hardly ever date. Finding the right girl is a hand delivered gift from Aphrodite herself. The fact that I found Tessa is a miracle in itself, and if I live through this I am not going to let this go to waste.

_The sun's out. We either killed it or we failed._

Then I heard screams followed by explosions and gun fire. _I failed. I didn't kill that CURSED DRAGON!_ Rage pulsed through my body. It's not that it lived; it's that I'll die for nothing. The dragon was wreaking havoc down on the ground while I lie helpless, up here, the life draining from me. I already self diagnosed my self with three months to live. I should have said four minutes, but the common sense parts of my mind didn't feel up to the challenge of functioning. I had committed a stupid mistake, killed myself, and did nothing for it! I felt a familiar surge of power course through my veins. I was transforming from anger again. At first I thought that this would do me in. It would drain me of the last ounce of energy I had and kill me. Then I realized something. Upon transformation, the new bone structure fitted my bones together and healed them. My new fur skin sealed the cuts on my face, hands, and chest. The gift that is my curse was going to save my life. My large cat body finally set in and I sprawled out on the rock, soaking in the sun that rose over my failure. If I was going to fail, I might as well live to see it.

Then the crash hit me.

All the life force I had went into my transformation and it became a curse again. I had two seconds to do something, and the only thing that seemed logical was to shadow travel to the base of the mountain. So I did, not realizing how much more of my life force that would take. I shadow traveled, collapsed, and then died.

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R&R!


	12. Chp 12: Restoration

**Chapter 12: Restoration**

Okay, in all honesty I didn't "die" per say, but I thought I did. As soon as I emerged from the shadows I collapsed over onto my back and stared at the sky, my consciousness slipping through my fingers like water. As my thoughts faded to black, I thought over the scene above me. It almost seemed peaceful. The orange glow of the rising sun, the cool breeze of a nice early summer breeze, the few clouds above me floating in peaceful groupings like wispy cotton balls. What I wouldn't do to be anywhere else but on the ground, still recovering from falling off a cliff. My eyes shut and my mind died.

I opened my eyes as soon as I felt the faint and almost unnoticeable tug of consciousness on my mind. I was lying on my back, human again, with my position changed. As I looked around I saw I was among the wreckage of the cabin with Tessa at my side.

"Tarrick!" she screamed when she saw that I was awake. She leapt to my side and leaned over to kiss me. Once she got off her jolt of excitement she realized that she didn't know whether I like her or not. She shrunk back a little bit, disappointed that she had imagined I liked her. But I did. Her face three inches from mine, I remembered my resolution on the side of the mountain.

"…_if I live through this I am not going to let this go to waste…"_

I leaned up and kissed her. She broke away and leaned back a little bit, staring at me completely confused. I lay back down on the floor of the cabin, equally confused but with a touch of disappointment. _Have her feelings changed? _Then I remembered how I knew she liked me. _I read her diary._ A renewed sense of guilt washed over me and I almost portrayed an emotion of complete fear. Tessa took this to mean that I thought my move on her had failed. She leaned back in for another kiss, but I rolled away, completely despising myself for a move so low. Tessa, confused and a little tense, shook the moment from her train of thought and stood to her feet.

"I'll, uh, I-I-I'll go fetch, uh, Nico," she stammered. There was a hint of something besides disappointment in her voice, almost sadness or complete shock. As she lumbered away to see if Nico was okay, I could have sworn I heard her crying. Three seconds of love, ten minutes of sadness and disappointment. Wow Tarrick, you really know how to handle women.

It was around now, when everything had died down and I was sitting in utter confusion and sadness that I realized the dragon was no where to be seen. I slowly tried to get to my feet and survey the land. Not only was the dragon gone, but the early morning wind was sweeping a layer of golden dust across the grass.

The dragon was dead. _Thank the gods! They killed it!_ I took a sigh of relief. Suddenly, a rush of pain swept over me, and I plunged back into my subconscious.

When I awoke again, it was dark again. Tessa was still caring for me, but this time Archie was lying beside me, crude bandages wrapped around him. Ambrosia was scattered around us as Tessa tended to each of our wounds. Archie looked to be in an even worse state than I, so he got the bulk of the attention. In fact, after a mental checklist of functioning body parts, I seemed to be in pretty good shape. I tried getting to my feet but still hadn't mastered the whole "standing" technique I saw Tessa demonstrating. It didn't take long for me to start wondering where I was with her. I was granted blessing of having her, but then I blew it with my own conscious. _Screw you conscious._

_What? And don't use such foul talk! It is disrespectful. And get up off your butt and help! And don't be so lazy! And go after Tessa! But don't demean her! She is a women and must be treated like a functioning member of society, no an item for a man to possess- _I hit the mute button. But my conscious (which appears to be slightly A.R.) was right. I had to make sure I settled things with Tessa before she moved on. I was about to call for her when Nico walked over.

"Up and running?" he asked. He saw our condition. "Okay? Hanging on? Alive?"

A jolt of pain shot down my arm as I gave him a 'thumbs up'. Archie, on the other hand, could only mumble what I thought was a word not fit for print. Or maybe he said "Duck poo, you spit". It was muffled by a bandage that clenched his jaw shut. And that's pretty much how we spent the next 24 hours; in the wreckage of a cabin, surrounded by gold dust, healing our battle wounds. In retrospect, I wish it had been 48.

* * *

Sorry about how long it took to get out. I lost all inspiration. But I promise that the next few chapters will fly out!

…probably.

And yes it is short, but the next one will be long to make up for it!

**R&R! That means you too Nathan!**


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